Council Preview: Monday, January 8, 2024

Council members will ease into the new year with a light agenda in place for their first of twenty Regular Council Sessions scheduled for 2024

The Public should have an opportunity to Comment on any item from the Regular Agenda at the start of that Regular session  starting at 7 PM session tonight 

Included among items for consideration on the night:  

A pair of Development Variance Permit requests, one featuring the housing plans for townhomes on Drake Crescent.

Borrowing  plans for two infrastructure projects also are up for Fourth and Final reading on the night. 

One for the Infrastructure Replacement Design borrowing plan; the other for the city's plans for a linear liquid waste infrastructure replacement program.

Monday's  Regular Council session starts at 7 PM and can be viewed by way of the Live Feed from the City Website.

The Regular Council session is normally posted to the City's YouTube archive within 24 hours of the session concluding.

You can review the Agenda for tonight's session here.  

The outline of Council's work ahead for the evening can be reviewed below:

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REGULAR SESSION OF CITY COUNCIL


Introduction of Late Items

Approval of Agenda  -- The Mayor will review the Agenda of the January 8th session and seek approval of Council  towards it. 

Not listed on the Published Agenda as of this morning, but an item that should be presented if past council sessions are a guide; is that related to the public comment process the city has put in place for Council meetings: 

Public Comments regarding Agenda items -- This period normally offers a chance for those in attendance to speak to any items to be addressed on the Agenda for the evening. 

Consent Agenda

Council review of Regular minutes from December 11, 2023 Session
Council review of minutes from Special Regular Meeting of December 13, 2023

Correspondences:

North Coast Regional District Board Highlights - December 2023 (see pages 8-9 of Agenda)
Request a letter of support from Northern Health  Re: Prince Rupert Port Authority Grant Application for the Acropolis Manor DementiAbility project for 2024. (see pages 10-15 of Agenda)

Council will be asked that all items of the Consent Agreement be approved as requested. 

Reports

Staff Reports

Report from Planning: Development Variance Permit #23-08 --  -- Council will  be asked to proceed with the Statutory Notification process for a property on 11th Avenue East .  (see pages 16-26 of Agenda)

Report from the Director of Development Services Re: DVP 23-24 --   Council will receive a report related to the proposal for development at Drake Crescent, with the recommendation from staff of approval of the Development Variance permit that had been requested.  (see pages 27 - 39 of Agenda)

Bylaws 

City of Prince Rupert Infrastructure Replacement Design Temporary Borrowing Bylaw  -- Council will be asked to provide Fourth and Final reading to the Borrowing Bylaw 3523,2023.  (see page 40 )

City of Prince Rupert Linear Liquid Waste Infrastructure Replacement Temporary Borrowing Bylaw 3524,3023  -- Council will be asked to provide Fourth and Final reading to the Borrowing Bylaw 3524,2023.  (see page 41)

Business Arising

Council Round Table and Public Question Period -- Council members will have opportunity to raise items of interest or concern for consideration.

Adjournment -- The Mayor will bring the session to a close. 

The live broadcast of the City Council Session can be found here, a video archive of the past sessions of Council is available from the City's YouTube archive.

Further notes related to the January 8th  session can be reviewed here.  

Our archive of all of the City Council sessions for 2024 is available here.  

City Council Session: Monday, January 8, 2024

Our Archive of items for the Regular Session of Prince Rupert City Council for Monday,  January 8, 2024.

Home page and archive of City Council session can be found here.

Live Broadcast of Council session can be viewed here.

Agenda for the Regular Council Session for January 8, 2024 (7PM)

Preview of Regular Council Session for January 8, 2024

Attendance

Mayor Herb Pond -- Present
Councillor Nick Adey -- Present
Councillor Barry Cunningham -- Present
Councillor Teri Forster -- Present
Councillor Reid Skelton-Morven -- Present (participated remotely)
Councillor Wade Niesh -- Present
Councillor Gurvinder Randhawa -- Present

Minutes of Regular Session of Council, Monday, January 8 , 2024
(not available yet)

Video Recording for Monday, January 8, 2024 

Council Timeline: Monday, January 8, 2024

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North Coast Review items related to the Monday, January 8, 2024 Session of Council

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Sixth Avenue Bridge restrictions to remain in place until repairs completed, with civic hopes for a Spring start
City Council to receive update on impact of BC Government changes to Housing policy
Road Safety through the downtown core of note for Councillor Adey   
Councillor Niesh looks for "Pothole Protocol" as City's streets continue to see infrastructure work 
City Council moves Drake Crescent Townhomes process forward 
Paint is the problem for Prince Rupert's fast disappearing roadway markings 
City Council to issue invite to Northern Health to discuss community health concerns 
Parking in Prince Rupert isn not Racial, but Spatial 
Ongoing infrastructure work makes for challenges for attending to streetlight issues
Cost Concerns, notes on timeline for Angus Apartments demolition process observed at Council Monday night 
No Timeline yet for ongoing work on Sixth Avenue Bridge 
Call for more police patrols and enforcement on vandalism and broken windows downtown 
Council set to move forward on proposal for Drake Crescent 
Northern Health to seek out letter of support from Council towards DomentiAbility funding quest with PRPA 

Further notes, as well as any media items from other sources for the Monday, January  8th session can be found in our Discussion Points from City Council Feature.  

Real Estate Tracker: Week ending January 7, 2024

One new property enters the listings as we come out of the holiday period, with the West side adding one to the ledger for the first review of 2024.

The distribution of our property listings finds four listings on the east side of the city, six west of the McBride street divide.

The real estate review below is purely a snapshot for information purposes and reflective of our weekly check on Sunday evening. 

Properties can ebb and flow from the listings through the week,  for further background on the properties recorded, see our links pages for access to the individual real estate listings, to consult them on a daily basis.

The Archive for our weekly review can be found here.  

Our list of the top ten priced homes for the week ending  January 7, 2024 can be explored below:

Real Estate Listings for the West Side of Prince Rupert
for the week ending January 7

Real Estate Listings for the East Side of Prince Rupert
for the week ending January 7

The lowest mark for the review of the week is at $729,000  while our top end is marked  at the price point of   $1,089,000

Total value of the listings for our ten this week is noted at $8,488,999

Below find our findings as of the Week ending January 7, 2024

103 Bill Road                                 $1,089,000 --    Remax

160 Van Arsdol Street                    $999,999 --       Remax

318 Alberta Place                           $910,000 --       Remax

1827 Graham Avenue                     $899,000 --       Remax  new

1881 Graham Avenue                     $860,000 --       Remax

1800 Second Avenue West              $775,000 --      Realty Executives

2005 Graham Avenue                      $749,000 --      Remax
1034 1st Avenue West                     $749,000 --      Realty Executives 
1900 Rushbrook Avenue                 $749,000 --      Remax

1320 Overlook Street                      $729,000 --       Remax 

This past week also provided for the annual release of the BC Assessment findings for the year, with the average Prince Rupert property assessment declining by 8% for this year.

For more items related to Real Estate see our archive pages here.  

For background on Housing issues in the Prince Rupert area see our archive pages here.  

Blog Watching: Week ending January 7, 2024

A new year, brings a new catalogue for our most read items for this year 2024, with a busy week and a range of themes capturing the attention of many of our readers over the first four days of the 365 on the calendar.

A topic that always captures the interest of readers, that of the visual look of the downtown area once again found a large audience, with our look at some extensive plywood installations at the Old Daily News building making for the top item for the week.

A unique but traditional approach to the fishery for Lax Kw'alaams also found a large audience, with our notes on the Band's plans for a fish wheel on the Skeena River of interest for readers.

The annual release of BC Assessment findings for the Prince Rupert area by BC Assessment also generated some strong readership as we took note of the reported decline in assessment for many properties in the region.

Health care also made for two stories that captured the attention of readers, first with our look at some expansion plans for the Prince Rupert Regional Hospital Operating Room area.

As well, our update on the impact of Influenza A on the hospital and its operations also was of some interest to readers.

Our top story of the five on the week takes us to the corner of Eighth Street and Second Avenue West and some attention to the building by the owner.

New Year brings new plywood for downtown's former Daily News building --  It seems if you put up some plywood in the downtown core area, it's destined to be a conversation starter. Such was the fate for our notes on an updated look for the old Daily News building.  It generated comments both on the blog and on a local social media stream which had highlighted the story; spurring on some themes that City Council might want to look over towards the perceptions of the downtown area.   (posted January 4, 2024) 

That article was followed by: 

Lax Kw'alaams outline Fish Trap plans for area of Lower Skeena River  --  A land use application with the BC Government offers up a glimpse of some fishery plans for the Lax Kw'alaams Band.  (posted January 2, 2024)

Average Prince Rupert property assessments decline by 8% as 2024 BC Assessments roll out -- The start of the year began with a familiar release of property information, with BC Assessment delivering its property assessments for this year online, with paper copies to arrive in your mailboxes shortly. The data for 2024 showing declines in assessment for many Prince Rupert area residents.   (posted January 3, 2024) 

Plans for expansion of services at Prince Rupert Regional Hospital bring BC Bid call -- While many in the community worry about a loss of medical services in the community, Northern Health has some plans in motion towards an expansion for their urology and Operating room services.   (posted January 3, 2024) 

   

Additional steps in place at Prince Rupert Regional Hospital following outbreak of Influenza A; Health Officials call for postponement of non-essential visits to the facility -- If you have been thinking that this has been a particularly nasty flu season, you would be spot on, with a strain of the flu making for enhanced measures and a call to hold back on any un-necessary visits to the health care facility.  (posted January 4, 2024) 

You can find our weekly Blog watching feature posted every Sunday morning by 9AM, making for a handy way to catch up to the week that was, at a leisurely weekend pace. 

 

You can also review the full listings of the week just past, from our Blog Archive index page found on the right hand side of the page. 

For updates on new items posted daily to the blog, we direct you to our CharlesMHays Twitter feed, where we post notification of new stories as we post them. 

Our archive of weekly Blog Watching can be found here 

 To view the most recent blog posting of the day, click here.

Approaching Adverse weather makes for Schedule revision for Northern Expedition for January 6-8

Travellers on the BC Ferry Northern Expedition over the next few days should take note of the revised schedule issued by the the Ferry Service today, which will see a number of changes for the Inside passage run and that which crosses Hecate Strait to Haida Gwaii.

That as the Northern Expedition delays its Saturday departure to Port Hardy by 12 hours, with a number of changes to follow through to January 8th.

click to enlarge

The Hecate Strait Marine Forecast is calling for Winds of up to 35 knots by Monday and Tuesday. Points south have winds forecast of up to 45 knots in the same period of time.

Any updates to the revisions can be found through the Service Notices page of the BC ferries website, or by way of their social media stream.

More notes on Marine transportation on the North Coast can be reviewed here.

Rampage return to ice with Home and Home series with Terrace this weekend

The CIHL resumes action this weekend following their extended Holiday break and the Prince Rupert Rampage will be among the first to try to shake some holiday rust from the skates.  

That as the Rhinos head off to Terrace tonight for the first of a home and home series with their top Northwest rival.

The River Kings will likely be marking their first game of 2024 with a full arena as they pay tribute to and salute Austin Braid, the popular Terrace River King player who passed away in November of 2023 and who had fans in many communities.

His passing coming after a courageous battle with brain cancer inspired many in the Terrace area and across the CIHL, as well as the other leagues both Senior Men's and junior where he played.

The weekend matchups make for a battle for First place with the Rampage holding the top spot in the CIHL at the break, their record of 8-2-1 giving the Rhinos 17 points heading back to play this month.

Saturday night, the rematch shifts to the boisterous atmosphere of the Jim, where another large Prince Rupert home crowd will make themselves well known from the stands from before puck drop.

Doors open at 6,  Game time is at 7PM and as in the past, there will be a number of fundraising activities taking place around the Jim Ciccone Civic Centre Arena this Saturday.

As they have all season, Saturday night's match up brings the tap on the shoulder for a PRMHA prospect and this weekend it's time for Walker Davis to take to the ice, the Seawolves member has some genealogy on his side, as well as a former Rampage in Dad Jared to name as his favourite Rampage.

January also marks the Huge push that the Rampage make in their Fight Cancer campaign, with the four home games this month a key part of their community initiative.

The start of the campaign came in late December with a Charity game between the Rampage and Ice Demons at the Jim, the result on the score board recording a 6-2 Rampage win in the exhibition matchup; but the real winner will be the Fight Cancer program, with Rampage officials anticipating a final tally north of 10,000 dollars from their launch event of the December 22nd game and social that followed.

You can see the support so far for the campaign, as well as keep up with the Rampage through their social media stream here. 

More notes on the CIHL can be reviewed through our archive page.

Weekend Gas Watch ... do you fill, or do you wait?

 

Unless you have some long distance travel ahead of you this weekend, whether you fill up today or wait until Monday to see the next price listing, should make for a roll of the dice for Prince Rupert's rolling wave of gas prices.

This week brought a decline in the price at the pump, with most stations in the city settling at the $1.67.9 price point per litre of gas.

The three City gas stations all have settled at a price point of $1.67.9 per litre

Though if you were to take the extra few minutes to travel out to the Industrial Park, the Grassy Bay Petro-Can had the best value at the pump, currently at a price point of $1.62.9 per litre.

The Grassy Bay Petro-Can in the Industrial Park has Prince Rupert's
best value for a fill up heading into the weekend 

The decrease in gas prices has been a steady one since Thanksgiving, with the price point between Turkey Dinners of October to December down from the $1.82.9 mark of the fall.

Just before Christmas the price for a litre of gas in the city was $1.74.9

Even at our new price points we're still below the price of the Northwest  

The  Gas Buddy website reports that the Terrace Husky Station on Lakelse has a price point of $1.59.9, that price is also reported at Kitimat and Smithers stations.

What comes next makes for the Quarter Tank challenge for Rupert motorists.

Leaving us to wonder if we can nurse that final bit of gas to the next price decline, or to wonder if we have missed the bottom and watch the price inch back up.

More notes on the commercial sector can be explored here.